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Tag Archives: Hazardous Materials

The New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Office of Emergency Preparedness and Response released scenario-specific response guides. With input from their community partners, they created 10 Individual and Family Response Guides that provide…

HHS released a recommendations guide called Primary Response Incident Scene Management (PRISM) for mass patient decontamination. Community planners can build scientifically sound actions into emergency response plans based on the recommendations, which were informed by…

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today released a draft assessment on the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, activities on drinking water resources in the United States. The assessment shows that while fracking has…

NACCHO, in collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security Office of Health Affairs, Chemical Defense Program, has initiated an effort to understand the role local health departments play in responding to large-scale chemical incidents. As…

Imagine thousands of people gathered at a popular park for an outdoor music festival: they are crowded together, distracted by the music and unaware of their surroundings. Imagine the park is in a downtown urban…

Every day large quantities of hazardous materials are made, transported, stored, and used in communities throughout the United States. With nearly 25 million people living near chemical facilities in the nation, many could be exposed…

The Elk River, West Virginia chemical spill of Jan. 9, 2014 has been one of the most challenging environmental health emergencies to occur within the United States over the past decade, and it has garnered…

A week after Freedom Industries leaked approximately 7,500 gallons of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol (MCHM) from a storage facility along the Elk River near Charleston, West Virginia, questions have emerged over whether state and federal regulations were adequate enough…

Several hundred thousand facilities in communities throughout the United States use, manufacture, store, transport, or deliver chemicals in some manner, encompassing everything from petroleum refineries to pharmaceutical manufacturers to hardware stores. Due to its size…

SITREP As of December 11, there are multiple active wildfires throughout southern California, primarily located in Ventura and Los Angeles counties. The National Weather Service has warned of damaging wind gusts which have the potential to lead to rapid or dramatic increases in wildfire activity. The Governor of California has declared Read more →

The Kaiser Family Foundation has released an issue brief titled Public Health in Puerto Rico after Hurrican Maria. The brief draws on federal and Puerto Rican government statistics and official statements and media reports to provide a snapshot of public health challenges in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria. Below is Read more →

Addressing the needs of electricity-dependent community members can be challenging for any health department, a fact that is most striking during a public health emergency. To address this problem, the Broome County Health Department in New York utilized the tools of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) emPOWER Initiative, developed by the Office […]